Exciting tale of steadfast love and bold adventure among Scottish smugglers during the regency.

A lively, saucy person is Patsy, one of the best girl characters Mr. Crockett has ever depicted. She is the central figure in this new Galloway romance in which smuggling and Patsy's abduction and recapture by a royal prince and all the other good things synonymous with Mr. Crockett's name have a part. While the book is one of historical adventure, the love interest is paramount throughout. The time of the story is just one hundred years ago, when the country in which the scene is laid was in universal revolt against the brutal system of compulsory enlistment, and bands were being formed to fight the manhunters, and smuggling was in full blast along the shores of Solway.

f the trout in the shallows with her stick and laughing aloud as they scudded away into the Vandyke-brown shadows of the bank.

The glen opened out a little and Louis paused at the corner, standing still in shadow.

Twenty yards away Patsy was talking to a young man in a shabby grey suit, a broad blue bonnet set on his head, and they were conferring profoundly over a book which Patsy held in her hands. The young man in the shabby suit appeared to be instructing Patsy, or at least explaining a difficult passage, which he did with more zeal and gusto than Louis cared about.

He knew him in a moment, for of course the heir of Raincy knew everybody within thirty miles.

"Only Frank Airie, the Poor Scholar!" he said to himself, his jealousy melting like a summer cloud, "of course--what a fool I was. He's on his way home from teaching the Auchenmore brats. Though it is a miracle that he should happen to cross the glen at the same point exactly. Perhaps he had a spy-glass, too!"